The law firm that is advising county
clerks in Florida not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples next
month will file a brief on behalf of a gay dad in support of marriage
equality.

Florida officials will begin issuing
marriage licenses to gay couples after January 5, when the current
stay on a federal judge's ruling striking down the state's ban on gay
marriage expires.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused
Attorney General Pam Bondi's request to extend the judge's stay as an
appeal is pursued.

Bondi continues to argue that gay
couples will only be allowed to marry in the one county named in the
lawsuit. Lawyers representing the plaintiffs have repeatedly said
that the ruling applies statewide.

The law firm Greenberg Traurig advised
clerks not a party to the litigation against issuing such licenses
starting next month.

“The advice provided by Greenberg
Traurig to our client, the Florida Association of Clerks and
Comptrollers, addresses a Florida clerk's duties under existing
Florida law, which prohibits the issuance of same-sex marriage
licenses,” Hilarie Bass, the firm's Miami-based co-president, told
the Miami
Herald. “Current Florida law makes it a crime –
punishable by imprisonment or a fine – to issue a marriage license
to a same-sex couple. Greenberg Traurig is not advising the clerks as
to the constitutionality of the Florida ban on same-sex marriage.”

Bass added that the firm, which also
represents Martin Gill, a gay man who successfully sued the state for
the right to adopt his son, will on Monday file an amicus
brief on behalf of Gill in Florida's Third District Court of Appeals
“in support of two circuit court orders declaring unconstitutional
Florida's ban on same-sex marriage.”